1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a detachable drive shaft and, more specifically, to a detachable power take off drive shaft for a lawn and garden tractor.
2) Related Art
Lawn and garden equipment that utilize powered front attachments require a PTO shaft that extends forwardly of the lawn tractor. Lawn tractors having PTO shafts that extend forwardly of the tractor are known in the art, however, when the mower deck is in use, these PTO shafts must be removed. One device in particular has a shaft with a detachable feature that includes a hex shaft that is allowed to slide out of its retaining bearing during removal. These shafts, however, are difficult to remove and require the use of tools. Also, the shafts are likely to be jammed by both dirt and rust. Therefore, there exists a need for a quick detachable device that is easy to remove and does not require the use of tools.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a quick detachable device that allows for the removal of the drive shaft without tools.
It is a further objective of the invention to provide a detachable device that allows the drive shaft to be easily removed.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a detachable device to allow the removal of a drive shaft that is easy to manufacture having a minimum of machined parts.
In accordance with the above objectives, the detachable device of the present invention has a drive shaft with forward and rearward ends. The rearward end is supported by a U-joint operatively mounted to a transaxle output shaft of a lawn tractor. The forward end of the drive shaft is supported by a bearing that is mounted to a means for detaching the shaft from a bracket connected to the forward end of the tractor for removal of the shaft. The means for detaching the shaft has a plate that is detachably connected to the bracket and a latch that is connected to the bracket that maintains the plate in connection with the bracket in a first position and releases the plate from the bracket in a second position.
These and other objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading the following detailed description in view of the drawings.